I’ve been perusing various MMA blogs, websites, and forums over the past few days and am beginning to see a common theme regarding Lyoto Machida. Either you love him and his style or you hate him and his style. There doesn’t seem to be any in-between. You think he’s boring? That’s fine. You think he’s [...]
Great show, and going into the night, I was conflicted about who I wanted to win for some fights. I’m a Lyoto Machida fan, and while I’ve never really been a Tito Ortiz fan, part of me was hoping to see him win just for the controversy it could’ve caused with Dana White. However, I [...]
(James Irvin: Fighting his way off of the C-list.)
“He’s lost his last two fights now, against Franklin and Anderson Silva, so the UFC’s decision makes sense. No fighter can guarantee winning a fight but you can go into a bout in shape. If you can’t go the distance then you’re not preparing well enough and you’re not taking your job seriously. We work for the UFC and it’s our job to get off our a**es and train and be in shape. That’s what we get paid for and if we don’t do that then we’re not doing our job. That’s the way I look at it.” — Michael Bisping on the recent sacking of Travis Lutter.
“I just decided to make light of the situation and be like, hey man, this is what I’m seeing. I’m seeing a running man. That just came to me out of nowhere. When there were ten seconds left I just said to myself, all right, I’m calling the technique the ‘rock-hammer.’ I don’t know if that name will stick or not.”
— Nate Quarry on the instant-classic ending of his fight with Kalib Starnes.
“I’m just so happy that he would even take the fight against me. I consider him an ‘A’ level fighter, and I consider myself a ‘C’ level fighter, maybe a ‘B’ level because I just beat Houston trying to claw my way up to the top. So for him to take a step down and fight me, I’m greatly appreciative of the guy, who is someone I look up to as one of those top tier fighters.”
— James Irvin on his UFC 85 opponent, Rashad Evans.
“Mentally I think BJ has some quit in him. I’ve seen it, I’ve seen it in the past. If you push him, he’ll quit.”
— Sean Sherk on his UFC 84 grudge match with BJ Penn.
“Now that the K1 thing is out of the way it’s all good baby: all MMA and MMA only. These guys (DREAM) want me to fight Aleksander (Emelianeko) in about three weeks time on May 11th! I was like no way because it’s too short a time with no training. I don’t want to risk fighting like that. But if they compensate me enough for taking that risk then it’s all good and I’ll fight. DREAM’s plan was to see how Fedor (Emelianeko) goes and when and if he wins the DREAM title, and then I will fight him…First time I fought him, my wrestling wasn’t great — actually it was pretty shit but I did alright with him. This time I will be ready.” — Mark Hunt, who may eventually be battling the Emelianenko brothers in DREAM. Hunt was submitted by Fedor via armbar at PRIDE Shockwave on New Year’s Eve 2006.
UFC 83: “Serra vs. St. Pierre 2″ had it all: Record attendance, quickest sell-out, crazy fans and from what I can ever remember, the first ever 30-24 scorecard.
Of course, the dubious score was one of the three given in the unanimous decision for Nate Quarry over Kalib Starnes in a fight that has ignited a wave of criticism from fans and promoter (UFC President Dana White) alike.
There’s been a lot of back-and-forth about what happened — rather waht didn’t happen — inside the Octagon last Saturday night. Kalib recently released a statement in response to all of the negative press he has been receiving since his poor performance.
Here’s a snip:
“… I trained really hard for my fight. I know that there were many people, including myself, who were disappointed with my performance, and I would like to apologize to my coaches, trainers and the fans for what happened. It was by far the worst fight of my career, much to the credit of my opponent who proved to be a real monster in the ring…”
Kalib also commented on the backlash he received from fans:
“There is a winner and a loser in every fight. I tried to win but on that night I couldn’t do it and I lost. Instead of allowing me to lose with dignity I was booed and called names and ridiculed beyond anything which seems reasonable to me.”
He continues on in his statement about breaking his foot during the fight and simply being out classed by Nate Quarry, who subsequently stole all of the “Rocky” banter that Georges St. Pierre and Matt Serra were tossing back and forth by becoming the hero in his opponent’s backyard.
“If I can change, and you can change, everybody can change!.” Classic.
Anyway, to check out Starnes’ complete statement click here. This hopefully is the last we hear about this situation; however, something tells me we’re not that fortunate.
Sean McManus is the Director of Media Relations for MMACanada.net. For more information on the MMA scene up in Canada check out MMACanada.net.
(Remember when Kalib’s claim to fame was this cut?)
The Fight Network picks up the blue ribbon for being the first to get Kalib Starnes’s side of the story. In a new interview, Starnes does his best to defend himself and debunk some rumors…
On why he jogged around the Octagon for 15 minutes: “Right now, I have a broken foot [that] I sustained with the first kick I threw in the fight…I can barely walk. [Quarry] totally destroyed my thigh with those kicks. I’m not about to stand there and get smashed to pieces. After I knew my foot was broken, I was trying to back up and work off the jab and keep moving so I didn’t get knocked out.”
On the reports that his performance was a protest: “Any report or rumor that I came on any radio station to comment on the fight or circumstances surrounding the fight or in reference to the UFC or Dana White is completely false.”
On his release from the UFC: “[UFC matchmaker] Joe Silva told me that it usually takes a couple of days for their legal department to complete the paperwork and that he would send me all of the paperwork to indicate that my contract has been dissolved. Later on in the afternoon, after I had spoken to Joe Silva, a story was released by some reporter from Yahoo! in which Dana White said that he had released me from my contract. I received no documentation on that, and it came after I asked to be released…I couldn’t be happier than to be released from the most oppressive contract I’ve ever been under in my life.”
The UFC didn’t waste much time, releasing former The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) contestant and UFC 83 main card participant, Kalib Starnes, from his contract after a puzzling performance against Nate Quarry this weekend, according to Yahoo!Sports.com.
Starnes — a native of Surrey, British Columbia, Canada — spent most of the 15 minutes of his middleweight bout with “The Rock” playing keep away. He simply refused to engage. In fact, Quarry mocked him inside the Octagon toward the tail end of the fight for his performance.
Here’s a snip from UFC President Dana White:
“He just doesn’t belong in the UFC and after his performance the other night, he should consider a new line of work.”
Starnes was looking to rebound from a technical knockout loss to Alan Belcher that ended because of a grizzly cut. He was displeased with the stoppage (even though his skull was visible) and was even more displeased with the financial hit he took to recover from the axe wound.
There’s actually some unsubstantiated Internet chatter that Starnes was interviewed after the Quarry loss and indicated that the UFCs reluctance to cover his medical costs is part of the reason for his performance on Saturday night. However, the Yahoo! report was unable to confirm or deny that statement.
Again … it’s unsubstantiated.
Regardless, Starnes did himself and his career a major disservice this weekend. He has much to prove going forward … if he’s even still interested.
UPDATE: Starnes claims that he requested to be released from his UFC contract and “couldn’t be happier” now that he is no longer with the organization. He indicated that a complete announcement will be forthcoming as soon as all the final paperwork is complete.
If you told me six months ago that one day we’d publish three posts involving Kalib Starnes within a seven-hour period, I would have thrown my scotch in your face and damned you as one of Satan’s deceitful minions. And yet here we are…
As we all knew he would, Kalib Starnes has been formally let go by the UFC for embarrassing the proud nation of Canada with his relentless backpedaling. And it wasn’t a cordial goodbye, either. Said Dana White: “He just doesn’t belong in the UFC and after his performance the other night, he should consider a new line of work.”
We’re all still scratching our heads at what exactly Starnes’s game plan was on Saturday night. As a couple commenters pointed out in our last post, there’s a report going around claiming that Starnes’s performance was boring on purpose, intended to protest the UFC’s low salaries and failure to pay medical bills; apparently, he didn’t get his broken ribs paid for after his fight with Kendall Grove. The fight with Quarry was the last on his contract, and he wanted to use it to “screw over the UFC.” To which we can only say, buddy, you think you were underpaid before UFC 83? We can’t wait until you find out what the pay’s like for smoker matches up in British Columbia.
If you’re going to leave comments and discuss the fights with all the other MMAmania.com readers be sure to do it on the main UFC 83 results post and not this one.
